Monthly Archives: August 2010

About 20 years ago we lived in an old historic home here in Oregon. My husband made the decision to have my portrait painted and I provided a photograph that I thought was nice. I remember I was wearing a black dress in the photo and in fact, I still have that very dress. The dress was a 40’s, heavily beaded, sleeveless sheath style made in Liverpool. My thoughts were this portrait would be merely a small little thing. A portrait I perhaps, would hang in the back bedroom or something. I never did a sitting and the painter never asked me any questions. Months later, my husband ‘Chris called and eagerly said “Your portrait is finished; we can go pick it up!” I remember walking into this woman’s living room and seeing several nude portraits and I first thought to myself, Oh no! Then there it was, a massive 6 foot painting! She was wearing a white dress with a pink ribbon; the dress was low-cut, but the most atrocious thing was the dress was sheer on the bottom. It was surreal; there was just no way I had a closet big enough to house this monstrosity! This was so unlike me, this woman in this painting! I wouldn’t wear a dress like that, she has too much makeup, she’s too revealing, and her style is completely different from mine! Well, to make a long story somewhat shorter. This portrait, hung in our bedroom for a very short time. When we moved from this wonderful, old, historic home I put her in storage. For the last 10 years she’s been in my Attic. I decided to name her Victoria; I have always fancied that name. I guess this is really the equivalent of today’s air brush and a total remake of a person! Makes you wonder about paintings you see of women you know nothing about, I wonder if they got their portrait and said “She’s nothing like me!”

Early hudson bay hunters and trappers, following the siskyou trail , passed through the site beginning in the 1820s. In the late 1840s, settlers (mostly American) following the Applegate trail, began traveling through the area on their way to the Willamette Valley. The name was selected to honor General Ulysses S. Grant‘s success at Vicksburg. Grants Pass post office was established on March 22, 1865. The city of Grants Pass was incorporated in 1887, a year after it had become the county seat.

Grants Pass is also the birth place of Dutch Bros. Coffee which began at the “coffee house” on the corner of D and 6th streets in downtown Grants Pass. Brothers Travis and Dane Boersma started the franchise in 1992 and it quickly spread throughout the region.

It is also the birthplace of OnlineAuction.com which began in the historic building located at 120 SW Jstreet. Founder and CEO Chris Fain resides in Grants Pass.

One never knows what lies beneath the bed, in the closet or buried in the attic. This statement could not ring more true for an Imperial Chinese screen discovered under the bed of a Tallahassee area home. The consignor, a local Tallahassee resident, had absolutely no clue as to the value he had slept above for the past 20 years. In fact, he cannot even recall exactly where he bought the screen – except to believe it was purchased in a lot of screens from a NY auction house years back. In which case, it would have most likely been overlooked by the world’s prominent Chinese collectors.

The discovery and marketing of this screen created global fervor in the Chinese collecting community. This screen dates back hundreds of years, into Imperial China and possesses a strong collector demand to modern day collectors. “No comparable screen of this quality or rarity has seen the light of day in recent years, so the interest was unbelievably intense from moment this screenhit the market – we knew it was going to be exciting to sell – but not $117,300 exciting” states Paul Barattini, Owner of Grace Estate Buyers – Manor Auctions TallahasseeOffice. Barattini went on to explain how the sale of this screen reinforces the importance of professional research and auction services when people have potential valuables they are uncertain about. The battle to own the screen waged on for about 5 minutes between floor, Internet and phone bidders, with an unnamed phone bidder finally winning out.

This Imperial Chinesescreen most likely made its way to the states by way of Britain. When the British Expeditionary Force of 1901 was sent to lift the siege of the British Legation in Beijing and quell the Boxer Rebellion – It is known that they entered the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. Many of the original artifacts and decorations were taken back to Britain and a good many of those found their way to the States.

OAKLAND, Calif. – It can still happen. The $20 garage sale buy can still become the undercover treasure that turns into $5,600+ at auction. That’s exactly what happened at Clars Auction Gallery’s Aug. 8 Fine Estate Sale.The consignors bought at a local garage sale what they thought was a charming old trunk for just $20. When they later decided to downsize their possessions, they consigned the trunk to Clars for their August sale. Decorative Arts specialist Deric Torres evaluated the piece, identifying it as a circa-1900 E. Goyard trunk, still laden with original decals from an era long past. Travel decals included Cunard White Star and Pullman Golden Arrow, while other labels indicated the trunk had visited France, Italy and England, including London’s Victoria Station.

The steamer trunk itself, produced by the French luxury luggage maker, Francois Goyard, measured 22 inches high by 32 inches wide and 19 inches deep. The latches were signed “Goyard Aine, Monte Carlo, Biarritz, Paris,” and “G.N.F., S.F. No 4” was painted on the exterior.

The consignors believed that the trunk may have been owned by a San Francisco opera star who traveled the world. Unable to confirm this provenance, Torres and the staff at Clars assigned the conservative presale estimate of $1,500 to $2,500 on the piece. Possible provenance aside, the bidding went crazy when the trunk came up. Quickly surpassing its high estimate, the trunk sold for an astounding $5,629 – a new auction record for a single Goyard trunk of this style. Needless to say, the consignors were thrilled with the result.

An Austrian enameled sterling silver purse shaped as a 1920s roadster sold for $24,000 at a Perfume Bottles Auction held April 30 in conjunction with the International Perfume Bottle Association’s annual convention in Reston, Va. Also, a Rene Lalique bottle in its original box for the company Gabilla chalked up $11,400; a Baccarat bottle for Madhva brought $24,000; a Lucien Gaillard circa 1910 bottle for the company Clamy rose to $30,000; and a Czech Ingrid bottle, ruby jeweled glass with ivory stopper, made $9,600. Prices include a 20 percent buyer’s premium.

I promised I would share Leo Oaks and his brother Michael Oaks book The 1882- 1886 Diary of Charles T. Anderson A Foots Creek Placer Miner. This is a fascinating book and I loved reading it. It begins in October of 1882 when Charles T. Anderson a young 25 year old miner and farm laborer went to work for Nelson Hosmer on his Foot’s Creek farm. You can purchase the book from the Josephine County historical society. What is great about this story is an antique store made sure the diary was placed in the proper hands. It is truly wonderful when antiques are placed with people that appreciate the story and document the story so that it can be shared with future generations. The book begins with “By valuing the past we define the present giving us a vision of the future”. If you recall from one of my earlier post Mr Leo Oaks is the gentleman who found the Conrad Chapman painting. What a find that was! Here is an excerpt from the story: The pickers found a 16 7/8 inches x 23 7/8 inches oil on canvas face up in the shed’s rafters. Though it was filthy, they planned to take it to a secondhand shop where they frequently sold things.
Oaks intercepted them and bought the painting for the princely sum of $25. The canvas was loose, and there was a piece of corrugated board jammed in the stretcher. (Oaks knows corrugated board. He worked for 40 years as a shift supervisor in a wood products plant that produced plywood.) For a year after he bought it, the painting sat dirty and untouched
“The image was so familiar, maybe because I have so many Civil War books,” said Oaks. “I didn’t recognize the monogram.”
When Oaks eventually took the backboard off, he discovered, written on the back, “Camp of the 3rd Kent., nr. Corinth, Miss. May 11th 1862. Painted by C.W. Chapman Co. D.”
C.W. Chapman was Conrad Wise Chapman, an artist well known for his Civil War pictures and Mexican landscape scenes. Oaks said that the writing on the back is in Chapman’s own hand. Oaks knew it was a find of some importance. “I said, `God Darn, that’s him!’ Then I got excited,” said Oaks. “I’ll tell you, my hair stood up.” He took the painting to a West Coast restorer who cleaned it up and repaired a small hole.

Not only was it a rare find, but it is the image that made Chapman famous. You can see the painting in one of my earlier stories. Thanks Leo for letting me share your book and your stories!

Like this:

Like most old sayings, this one probably originated from several different stories, but my favorite is the story of an early 1800s farmer who heard a circus with elephants was coming to town. He’d always wanted to see an elephant, so he loaded up his grain in his wagon and drove to town. On the way, he encountered the circus train. His mules saw the elephants, went ballistic, bolted and upset the wagon, spilling his grain all over the road. When asked if he regretted coming to see the circus, the farmer said he didn’t care, for he’d “seen the elephant.”

The saying came to mean seeing or doing something exotic. It could describe the experience of gold seekers who went west during the Gold Rush hoping to hit pay dirt or the young trailhands going from Texas to the wild Kansas cowtowns. If they happened to meet trouble, hardship or failure when they got there, they didn’t regret it, for they’d “seen the elephant.”

The expression was also popular during the Civil War. Soldiers used it to describe having experienced combat. When one had been in a battle, he could tell those he encountered who had not as yet been under fire that he’d “seen the elephant”.

Like this:

.” “In from a stroll” (estimate: $400,000-$600,000) depicts a well-dressed young woman, who has seemingly just returned from collecting roses. At a glance it is readily clear that the artist is less interested in capturing the psychology and minute details of the figure than in conveying the idealized beauty of the figure and a general sense of calm in the atmosphere. Makovsky’s dynamic brushstrokes and emphasis on light are evidence of the influence that Impressionist paintings and artists had on his technique following his visit to Paris earlier in his life. The painting seems to disassociate the enchanting young woman from reality. Perhaps Konstantin Makovsky’s son Sergei Makovsky, aptly described his father’s approach to reality and his working method when he wrote: “. . . he would lay his hands upon the brushes and immediately settle on the task—he would find the composition and color spectrum, and transfer to canvas that which he saw or that which he wanted to see in nature.” I could not find the price realized on this painting, it may not have sold. It was for sale at Christies. Beautiful!

Scotsman Henry Drummond insisted he knew the answer based on what he considered the highest authority. He spoke of the “greatest thing” often. In fact he was invited all over the world to talk about it. The title of his little talk was simply The Greatest Thing in the World. You can read it in ten or fifteen minutes. It has never been out of print in the 120 years since first published and maintains its status as a classic of spiritual inspiration.

What did Henry say was the greatest thing? You probably guessed it:
The greatest thing in all the world is Love.